A Narrative of the Mutiny, on board His Majesty's Ship Bounty by Lt. William Bligh

"The most famous voyage in recent history was that made by Lieutenant William Bligh in HMS Bounty. Everyone knows that the Bounty's crew, led by Fletcher Christian, mutinied and set Bligh and eighteen loyal crewmen adrift in a 23-foot launch shortly after the ship had left Tahiti in April 1789. In their small boat Bligh and his companions made a remarkable journey of more than three and a half thousand miles from Tofoa to Timor in six weeks over largely uncharted waters.

William Bligh, pictured in his 1792 account of the Mutiny voyage, A Voyage to the South Sea

What is not so well known is that in the course of this hazardous journey Bligh took the opportunity to chart and name parts of the unknown north-east coast of New Holland as he passed along it, an extraordinary feat of seamanship. Bligh's account of the mutiny and his journey in the launch was published in London the following year as A Narrative of the Mutiny, on board His Majesty's Ship Bounty.